Thursday, April 30, 2009

Sadly Season 1 and 2 of Tracey Takes On... has been discontinued for DVD. You can still buy new/used copies on Amazon and Ebay. Thank goodness I bought the two seasons before they were discontinued! Let's hope that they will consider releasing them again.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

I have been informed that Season 3 of SOTU is in production, and that they look for extras and interns every season! Oh man..could this be it? could this be my chance to not only meet Tracey herself, but to act with her as well?? Oh wow!! This is so exciting! And whoever you are, the person who informed me about this, I cannot thank you enough! I wish I knew your name though, because you posted as anonymous... :P

Update: I have been informed that they usually shoot in October or November for 3 or 4 weeks, and that they may also hire non-union actors.(That's me!) I am freaking out right now...in a good way of course! looks like my dream is slowly coming true!! I am actually starting to cry a little, because there could be a possibility of working with Tracey herself and meeting Tracey; something I have been dreaming about since I saw her in "Tracey Takes On..."

Monday, April 27, 2009

Tracey is already starting up a third Season! I wonder how many characters she's going to do this season... 60 maybe?? Aah, I don't know, but I do know that it's going to be good! Maybe there will be auditions...

By Marcia G. Yerman

Sketch comedian extraordinaire Tracey Ullman found a comfortable niche on Showtime for her satiric probe of America’s psyche. But no viewer gets to remain complacent under her penetrating gaze.

April 24, 2009Back for a second season on Showtime’s Sunday lineup, in seven half-hour episodes that began airing this month, Tracey Ullman mixes over-the-top comedic entertainment with astute observation. As each segment opens to the strains of Dvorak’s New World Symphony, the viewer gets a bird’s eye look at the topography of the United States that feeds into a visual riff on American culture. A solemn voice over states, “Land of the free and home of the brave. Let’s visit its people for a day.”

Through her panoply of characters—some of them celebrity impersonations—Ullman tackles health care, the media, ageism, celebrity adoption, the financial crisis, gay marriage, and the demise of the honeybees among other topics. The accessible humor does nothing to hide her acerbic subtext in themes that recur throughout the series.

One of her vehicles, morning anchor “Linda Alvarez,” asks her staff about an upcoming story. “She hanged herself in rehab with the strap of her Marc Jacobs bag. Is that entertainment or obituary…or both?” To comment on members of the Supreme Court, Ullman disappears into the persona of fashion designer Donna Karan, who is on a mission to redesign the judicial robes. (“The robes haven’t been updated since the Taft administration.”)

Taking on groupthink and cults, Ullman interweaves praying nun “Mother Superior Rose Panatella” with featured characters from a fundamentalist Mormon (FLDS) compound in Texas. As Panatella quizzically contemplates why women would want to live in a polygamous situation where they “all dress and look the same,” she begins to grasp some uncomfortable parallels.

Among her uncanny imitations, the Laura Bush portrayal stands out. The former First Lady asks her sleeping husband, “Do you ever wonder if you could have done things differently?” Ullman uses “Lisa Penning,” soldier and mother, to examine the stresses facing those serving long tours of duty. (Her husband is also deployed.) While home on an abbreviated leave, Penning is faced with foreclosure. Her response to the bank’s offer of $2,000 for a house valued at $200,000 is totally logical in an Ullmanian universe.

Wearing multiple hats of executive producer and writer as well as performer, Ullman had plenty of insights to share. A multiple Emmy recipient, who first impressed the critics in 1981 for her work at Britain’s Royal Court Theatre, Ullman has thoroughly traversed the show biz system. She made it clear at the start of her sketch comedy career that she would not play the “busty bar maid” (adding she was not the Benny Hill type anyway), looking to English character actresses Joan Plowright and Maggie Smith as role models. But it was American stars such as Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Lily Tomlin, and Gilda Radner who were her trailblazers. Radner was a particular inspiration because “she was as funny as the guys … and she wrote her own stuff.”

Regarding women in the field today, Ullman spoke of Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. “Tina Fey’s been a wonderful breakthrough for us,” she said, adding that television is a much more welcoming medium, particularly as “film is just terrifying for women right now. There’s nothing if you’re over thirty-five—unless you’re Meryl Streep.” Ullman prefers cable for its artistic latitude. Yet television has its limits. She noted that in network “women get daytime,” quipping, “We can elect a black man, but we can’t get a woman in night time television!” Ullman acknowledged that Chelsea Handler had started to make a dent with her format on cable’s E! Networks.

While “interpreting America” in her series, Ullman zones in on one of her top concerns. “I care about women aging with dignity,” she said. So slipping in “under the guise of humor” are the travails of older flight attendant “Dee McNally,” who started her career at the time of “Fly Me” glamour. Ullman scrutinized how stewardesses from the Middle East and Singapore still have the “I Dream of Jeanie” outfits, reflecting the male corporate ideal. Ullman morphed into an American aviation executive when she exclaimed, “Goddamn it! We lost control of how we make the girls look.”

Work has already started on the third season. Ullman gathers her news and information from a range of sources that include both old and new media. Some of her previous incarnations will be back while new ones enter the pantheon. Plenty of material remains to be mined on her favorite targets—reality shows, the unaffordable cost of healthcare, teenage pregnancy. “You have to question your own beliefs,” Ullman tells me.

It is a sure thing that Ullman will continue pushing the envelope on the audience’s core value system, as well as her own.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

TRACEY AS DONNA AND MIUCCIA: In a career that’s been spent lampooning everyone from airline stewardesses to lesbian tennis players, it was only a matter of time before Tracey Ullman got around to the fashion world. On Sunday night, the comedienne’s Showtime series “State of the Union” added Donna Karan and Miuccia Prada to its roster of characters, which already includes Renée Zellweger, Arianna Huffington, Laurie David and Laura Bush. “I was quite proud of my Donna Karan,” Ullman told WWD on Monday. “Didn’t you like the wig?”

It was a dark brown shoulder length mane and, indeed, it looked unmistakably Donna Karan-ish, as did a necklace of oversize beads Ullman wore as she played the designer making new robes for the justices of the Supreme Court. Moments later, the sometime fashionista (“I was more into fashion when I was younger,” Ullman said) was back as Miuccia Prada, taking her bow at a fashion show where the clothes were ripped from headlines about a cult of polygamist Mormons. This impersonation lasted all of five seconds, but the almost embarrassed, sheepish bow Ullman takes in the sketch was uncannily like the bow done season after season by the woman she was impersonating. “I love how designers do that,” Ullman said. “They pretend to be so humble." Ullman is even thinking she might throw a couple male designers into the mix. " Maybe I should play Oscar De La Renta" She mused.

I have been wondering if Tracey has been to the gym, because on last night's episode of SOTU, her arms looked rather toned, especially when I saw her as Donna Karan. And I must say, She looks amazing for her age...but you already knew that, right?

Thursday, April 16, 2009

It's a bit disconcerting, really. Either there's someone else in the room with television comedian Tracey Ullman or she thinks I know people I've never heard of.Up until now we've been having a rather amazing phone conversation about her first book, "Tracey Takes On." It's based on her hit HBO comedy series, which begins its third season this month. In the 11 or so minutes we've been talking, she's slipped into at least three of the 16 characters she's created for the series and the book, not to mention a very funny impersonation of her mother back in England. She's told me she looks very "smart" today, with her hair pinned up and wearing a pinstripe suit, "trying to look like an affluent yuppie" so that she can impress the people at the school where she wants to send her daughter next year. She's made me laugh. Too much. And I've begun to worry about how to convey in print her astonishing gift for mimicry.

But now Tracey Ullman wants to know Nancy's last name. I have no idea who she's talking about. I'm about to offer my beloved aunt as a possibility when there is commotion at the other end of the line. Someone is with her. There is a discussion. She decides it's Nancy Allen, and I surmise her husband is the other person in her office.

There are a thousand and one reasons for her husband to be in the room. He is the producer of her show. He's gone with her to interview their daughter's school. Tracey Ullman tells me she's "addicted to laughter" and says her husband is probably the funniest person she knows. There are plenty of reasons. And I find myself wondering if Tracey Ullman isn't just a little bit shy.

"I'm not a crazy, party-going sort of person," she says. "I don't get very involved in the L.A. scene. When you do get invited out, you are expected to be on all the time. It's just wearying. I'm very happy being at home with my family. I come home, I get in bed at nine o'clock, and I read. But I do enjoy making people laugh."

Shy and deprecating about herself, maybe ("It's an inherent trait of the English," she assures me). But not about comedy. "I hate clowns," she says. "A lot of stand-up comedy is embarrassing: too many idiots doing it in orange neckties against brick walls. I find most sitcoms embarrassing too, because they seem so forced. And I never wanted to do political satire because it seems too surface to me.

"I loved the late Gilda Radner," Ullman continues, her voice dwindling to a hush. "I love Carol Burnett and Lily Tomlin. In fact, I got into a very nice professional children's school by impersonating Lily Tomlin. My influences were Peter Sellers and the great British character actors. I used to sit and talk to myself in the mirror and pretend that I was a woman whose husband was in prison and who had three kids and no money. It's the poignancy and sadness in things that gets to me."

Ullman's extraordinary ability to summon voices and accents, as well to project the poignant and the comic simultaneously, goes a long way toward explaining the success of her HBO series. The characters she has created for the series range from Rayleen Gibson, a 34-year-old stuntwoman ("she's half woman and half kangaroo") to H.R.H, a 57-year-old Royal ("I love my H.R.H. character. But I never got it. Why do we pay these people millions of pounds to be better than us?"), to the extraordinary Chic, a New York cabbie and "chick magnet" ("I remember this guy who worked in a restaurant in England who thought just the coolest thing to say was, 'Hey! You like sex?' As if you were going to say 'Oh, yes! I really, really do! I want to have sex with you right now!' Chic is the character my family least likes to see me as. It is the most uncomfortable make-up. The beard is vile. It's made of yak hair and itches horribly. . . . But, yeah, the girls fancy me when I dress up like that.")

Ullman is quick to point out that her humor, while sharp, also has heart. "I'm not making fun of these characters," she says, "and I'm not being mean about them. I'm just celebrating them. My mum always said, 'You're full of feeling.' And I am."

In fact, Ullman expresses a particular affection for the spinsterish Kay Clark, a character she based on a woman who worked in a bank in the English village where she grew up. "She used to ask me about America and Hollywood whenever I came home. She was living vicariously. 'Have you been to Hollywood?' I'd ask her. 'No, but I've seen a lot of movies,' she'd say. She was kind of sad, but she didn't feel sorry for herself. She was courageous in a way. I'm very fond of Kay."

In "Tracey Takes On" the whole cast of characters Ullman embodies in her show offer their out-of-kilter opinions on everything from sex, money and fame to health, mothers and royalty. Ullman herself chimes in with a number of humorous personal anecdotes. In place of the dead-on accuracy of her vocal imitations, Ullman gives each of her characters a graphical style that is rich and elaborate in its detail.

"I thought it would be easy to write this book," Ullman says. "I was a great fan of the [Monty] Python books. They were really fun to read. But finding the way to make this book funny on the page was a challenge. Sometimes books are too dense to be comedic. So I thought a lot about graphics and fonts and the style of it. I imagined the type of firm the characters would go to design their stationery. We put in a lot of pictures. It ended up being lovely adapting the show into book form. I did enjoy doing it."

But Ullman won't be doing another book anytime soon. "Maybe when I'm 75 and living in the south of France, after everyone I want to bitch about is already dead. Then I may want to talk about my life in Hollywood. At this time in my life I'm just not into talking about myself personally. I'm happy in what I do. And I'm as famous as I want to be."

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Tracey Ullman's State of the Union" reflects a basic tenet of the star's adopted land: Keep it moving.

Tracey Ullman in Tracey Ullman's State of the Union(Art Streiber/Showtime)The England native, a longtime U.S. resident and recently minted citizen, knows something about American attention spans. She portrays 15 characters in just the first half-hour of her new Showtime sketch comedy series (Sunday, 10 p.m. ET/PT).

"It's like a YouTube-mentality show. I don't think anyone's got the focus at the moment for 14-minute sketches, so I decided to make it fast and furious," says Ullman, who has displayed her impersonation skills on Fox's "Tracey Ullman Show" and HBO's "Tracey Takes On …." "It's never boring. If you don't like this bit, you'll like the next bit."

With each of Union's five episodes set up as a day in the life of the country, Ullman appears as dozens of people, both real -- "Sopranos" star Tony Sirico, Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington, Suzanne Somers — and her own creations. The latter reflect the nation's diversity, from an unexcitable Nebraska woman to a Jamaican caregiver in New York to an Indian pharmacist who breaks out into Bollywood musical numbers.

Ullman had 10 shooting days for the series, so makeup time for the dozens of characters had to be kept to a minimum.

"I know sometimes I'm not 100% convincing, but it's an energy, a confidence to playing" each character, she says. "There's one little thing we'll find that will imbue me with a sense of being that person. Renee Zellweger: I just put these eyelashes on and tried to think of Lamb Chop from Shari Lewis."

She particularly likes her unglamorous characters, such as a crass woman who has a thing for marrying death row killers. "I love being her. I got to have bad hair, cheap clothes, bad teeth, smoke cigarettes. I got to cry," she says.

Ullman, who has lived in the USA for 25 years, earned her citizenship in 2006. "I've had a wonderful experience in America. I've had a lovely career here. And after the last election, I wanted to vote. I wanted to join in."

Did you notice that Tracey uses the same nose for both Arianna Huffington and David Beckham? I did only a few days ago!

Also, I've been thinking of a possible sketch idea for a possible third season of "State of the Union", if there is going to be one.

You know how she mentions in interviews that everytime she goes through Airport Security checks, they notice her and say, "You on TV?" Well, she should do that with Chanel Monticello. Tracey could come through the airport, or someone who looked like her, or just show the back of her, whatever, and then Chanel could say, "You on TV? It's her! It's Tracey Ullman, Tracey Ullman! Your crazy girl! you da bomb biggidy!" because Tracey has said that quite a bit. Wouldn't that be something? I don't know, it's just an idea.

I came across this clip where people are impersonating celebrities, including Tracey for the 'Sam I am' movie. Tracey's impression starts at 1:11 and again at 5:25. I must admit, it was rather funny. When she said "Sound Guys" it sounded alot like Tracey.

That's how former U.S. First Lady Laura Bush greets the morning in Crawford, Tex.

Or, shall we say, that's Tracey Ullman's version of Laura Bush greeting the new day.

"I was just obsessed with Laura Bush," admitted Ullman, whose sketch series Tracey Ullman's State of the Union makes its second-season debut Monday on The Movie Network and Movie Central.

"It's that staring thing she does. I just wanted to be Laura Bush, and I thought, she'll be back in Crawford and it will be 115 degrees. And she'd have a lot of 'objet d'art' and doodads to try to fit into the house."

Just listening to Ullman say "objet d'art" in Laura Bush's Texas drawl makes us laugh. In fact, it's Ullman's portrayal of Laura Bush as a smoking, half-wistful, half-relieved housewife that stands out in the first episode of State of the Union's new season.

But of course, Ullman is nothing if not versatile.

In the first episode alone, besides Bush and many of Ullman's own creations, she plays Canadian singer Celine Dion, political pundit Arianna Huffington, CNN reporter Campbell Brown, and Paul McCartney's former beau Heather Mills.

Ullman's take on Mills, by the way, has Mills starring in her own TV show and singing her own Mary Tyler Moore-style theme song, with the final phrase, "I'm gonna make it on me own!" And you can imagine what Mills throws into the air at the end of her ditty. It isn't a hat, we can tell you that.

Later in the seven-episode second season of State of the Union, we'll see Ullman taking a run at Lindsay Lohan's mom Dina, author J.K. Rowling, newscaster Tom Brokaw, and actors Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jodie Foster and Renee Zellweger, among others.

"To impersonate actual people is something I've started to do on State of the Union," said the 49-year-old Ullman, who is from England and first became known to North American audiences as a singer in the 1980s. She subsequently has starred in three separate TV programs: The Tracey Ullman Show (which spawned The Simpsons), Tracey Takes On ... and her current project.

"I always felt (impersonating real people) was Saturday Night Live's domain," Ullman said. "But there were a few people that I really thought, if I'm going to do a trip across America, there should be some celebrities."

Ullman cautioned, though, that exact impressions are not her cup of tea.

"I'm not Rich Little," she said.

"That's not what I want to do."

"I mean, I didn't want to be Sarah Palin, which I think Tina Fey just absolutely nailed. I wanted to be the lesbian that Sarah Palin kept talking about, who was 'my best friend, and I've known her for years.' I'd rather find out where she is. Where is she, Juneau? What does she look like? You know, match it up. I try to go off-piece a little."

One miraculous thing about Ullman is she really hasn't aged much since we first saw her in 1983 in a video for the top-10 hit They Don't Know (which featured a cameo by McCartney, as you'll recall).

Back then, Ullman was seen as an up-and-coming "triple threat," someone who could sing, dance and act. But did getting that tag early in her career ever become burdensome?

"I just have taken a lot of time off in my career," Ullman said. "I've had (two) children. I have a great marriage. It takes me seven years to ever come up with a new show. I've had plenty of years just wandering around, doing the shopping, not getting any attention. I don't have to be on all the time."

Well, we're happy that the multi-talented Tracey Ullman continues to work, even if, uh, she doesn't really have to financially.

"Contrary to reports, I did get a little, little piece of The Simpsons," Ullman said. "It does us very nicely, thank you very much."

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

I cannot get this song out of my head..It's been playing like a broken record in my head, so it might help if I write it down..oh wait, that might be worse, because if I write it down, then everytime I come back to my blog, I'll read this post, and maybe it'll start all over again...ay yi yi...

This is the song she sings about the Bipolar medication

There's no shame in being BipolarA bit like having your mood up in rollersOne minute you feel happy -- a ha a haThe next you want to cry -- boo hoo hoo hooYou shoot a man in Reno, just to watch him die

I say that I must warn youThe side effects are badFar more traumaticThan your molesting dadEven Diet PepsiCan trigger epilepsyWhile shopping at IkeaExplosive diarrhea

VANCOUVER - Tracey Ullman purely hates dramatic re-enactments. And that’s odd — in an offhand, almost ironic way — because Ullman is a world-recognized performer who has made her career mimicking other people. A character actress, as she describes herself.

In Tracey Ullman’s State of the Union’s second season, which bowed earlier this month on The Movie Network and Movie Central, Ullman takes on Celine Dion, Heather Mills-(not)-McCartney, Jodie Foster, J.K. Rowling, Silda Spitzer (yes, Silda Spitzer!) and Tom Brokaw.

Dion, Mills-(not)-McCartney and J.K. Rowling join a character repertoire that, last season, included Dina Lohan, mom to You Know Who, Renee Zellweger and Tony Sirico-as-Paulie Walnuts, from The Sopranos.

Ullman’s State of the Union tends toward short, scattershot sketches — no more than 90 seconds, Ullman has vowed this season. The pace is swift, with celebrity impersonations and Everyman/woman characterizations racing by at a dizzying clip, like an ADD-afflicted outing of Entertainment Tonight or Access Hollywood.

Off-screen, Ullman’s taste in TV leans toward historical documentaries. And not those history programs with loud, weepy music and crummy historical re-enactments, either, but the full Ken Burns.

“Don’t you just hate that?” Ullman said recently while in Los Angeles to promote State of the Union’s second season. “All these historical shows with re-enactments that show a lot of stupid people running past the camera with Tevas (sandals) on or something. They can never afford the right shoes for these things. I hate them. Don’t do re-enactments. Let’s just imagine the real people.”

Ken Burns, on the other hand: That’s a different kettle of fish entirely.

“I’ve learned so much about America from Ken Burns’ documentaries,” Ullman explained. “The Civil War — I feel like I’ve had a university education about all this. I love Ken Burns. But he can’t keep doing the fiddle. It’s like everyone’s doing it now. Enough with the fiddle.”

Away from her TV show, Ullman leads a fairly normal life, she insisted. She’s a working mom with two grown sons and a devoted husband. They’re soon-to-be empty nesters.

“We’ve been married 25 years,” Ullman said of her producer-husband Allan McKeown, a fellow ex-pat Londoner who produces State of the Union in-between domestic chores.

Ullman leads a fairly normal, workaday life, with normal, workaday habits. She doesn’t stand in her bathroom mirror every morning, making like Norma Desmond.

And she likes her history programs in the evening, when it’s time to kick back and unwind. She would rather watch the History Channel than the prime time entertainment newsmagazines.

Just don’t get her started on dramatic re-enactments.

Ullman ascribes her longevity in part not to impersonating celebrities — other comediennes do that, and better than she does, insists — but coming up with peripheral characters that perhaps nobody else has thought of.

“I’m not Rich Little,” Ullman explained. “That’s not what I do. I don’t want to be Sarah Palin. I think Tina Fey just nailed that; it was pure genius. I want to be that lesbian that Sarah Palin kept talking about. You know, the one where she kept saying, ’She’s my best friend and I’ve known her for years.’ Where is this woman? In Juneau? What does she look like? That’s what I do — match it up, somehow. I try to be a little off-centre.”

Ullman has impersonated a red-carpet parade of recognizable celebrities in her time, but these days, when she tackles a celebrity, she prefers one a little bit in left field. Like — Seth Rogen.

“I wanted to be Jonah Hill and Seth Rogen, for some bizarre reason,” Ullman said. “They were good fun, though. My poor 17-year-old son has to see me doing this stuff.”

Another off-kilter impersonation? Len Goodman.

“(State of the Union writer) Bruce Wagner was, like, ’Who is Len Goodman?’ And I said, ‘It’s a really big reality show, So You Think You Can Dance with a Celebrity, or something like that.’ He just kills me. I love being Len Goodman.”

\Ullman finds personal inspiration not so much in other comedians as the great character actresses — Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Meryl Streep.

“I don’t class myself as a comedienne,” Ullman said. “I’ve never done standup. I couldn’t tell jokes in front of a crowd to save my life. I always wanted to be a character actress, and do it until I’m 95. I keep going back to Peter Sellers, again and again — a genius.”

“I really enjoy what I do. I love that I can get enthusiastic and come back and do something, and have it be relevant, and have people enjoy it. I’m in it for the long run.”

Ullman and McKeown recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary — the old-fashioned way, with a trip to Paris.

Yes, it was tempting to pretend to be Carla Bruni at times, but somehow Ullman found the strength to resist.

“Silver wedding anniversary,” Ullman said. “Our marriage is on the rocks, but we’re staying together for the syndicated reruns.”

“It’s true,” McKeown said, sadly.

“It’s true,” Ullman chimed. “Doesn’t Allan look like Bernie Madoff? Seriously, it just hit me. If he wore a hat and got a little quilted jacket and walked down Park Avenue, he would just get head-butted. It’s unfortunate.”

One mistake...she doesn't have 2 Sons. She has one Son and one Daughter

As you already know..well, some of you..okay, none of you know that I've wanted to meet Tracey ever since I saw her in "Tracey Takes On..." I just fell in love. We somehow share the same interests. I like impersonating people, She likes impersonating people, and she is way better than I am. Only Tracey can come up with 52-54 characters in 3 weeks ok? No one else. No one comes close. I mean, she is such a talented, funny, charming woman who seems like a firecracker to me. So full of energy! I keep telling my mom that I want to meet her, and she replies "Maybe one day you will." Let's just hope that's true! Oh God, if I could meet her? and shake her hand?? I'd die. It would be so amazing, you have no idea, unless you've met her yourself. People call me obsessed. Great. Whoopee. I don't care. Say what you want. I mean, She's helped me come out of my shell when it comes to acting or doing my accents or voices. There was a point in my life where I didn't care anymore, and stopped doing my voices. But when I watched her, somehow it jolted me. Brought me back to life in a way. And I started doing them again, and started to learn Tracey's Characters, and now I can't stop!

I keep having these dreams of meeting her, and dancing with her, having a grand old time. Why can't this happen in REAL life? Oh yeah, because it's so unreal...damn...I quote her characters alot too. Especially Fern. I was in the grocery store the other day, and I saw some Rugela Cheese and said something like "The Rugela! Harry, the Rugela is burning! Ay Christ!". See? I can't help it.

She's a cut above the rest. You know that already right?

I can't really express how much she inspires me... She's a genius, the cream of the crop...Tracey, your a genius, and one day, I hope I can meet you, so I can ruin my mascara and look like a complete idiot, just for you... :)

The first episode of Season 2 Premiered last night! I got to see it because my Mom, being the savior she is, had ordered the channel M(Movie Network) just in time for the season 2 premiere! And let me tell you, it was worth seeing, even though I had to stay up until 1:30 to see it! But I really enjoyed it, and can't wait to see Tracey again! If you have missed the Season Premiere, you can see it now online!!

Friday, April 10, 2009

I remembered that I had to get up early today because Tracey was going to be on "The Early Show". So I got up at 7, waited...waited...and finally around 8:15, Tracey was on. She looked amazing. Her hair was so shiny and silky, and she was wearing a classic black dress and some red pumps. She was cheerful, and was always smiling. Of Course, she got some of her impressions in, like Arianna and Tom Brokaw. She also impersonated one of the hosts! Maybe it was just me, but there was this one time where Tracey looks into the camera, and I swear, it felt like she was looking at me. Smiling at me. I mean, I know she had to look into the camera, but it felt like there was a difference between the two...I don't know...you must think I'm crazy!

LOS ANGELES — It doesn't take long for Tracey Ullman to name the thing she loves most about this country."America," says the British actress, pausing to let one of her two rescue dogs jump into her lap, "has this ability to reinvent itself. It's amazing."

The same can be said about Ullman, whose second season of State of the Union premieres Sunday on Showtime (10 p.m. ET/PT).

The show was hatched after Ullman, who has been married to producer Allan McKeown for 25 years, became an American citizen in December 2006. Now, she says, the gloves are off.

"After all these years of living here, it's like a psychological barrier went away in my brain. I feel like I can say anything now; I feel so much a part of this place now," says Ullman, 49. "I feel like I can say more than I ever said now without fear of losing my green card or ending up in Guantanamo Bay."

In the 1980s, Ullman showcased her natural ability to create relatable, hilarious characters via The Tracey Ullman Show and The Simpsons. In the '90s, she ventured to cable TV with Tracey Ullman: A Class Act, Tracey Ullman Takes On New York and Tracey Takes On ..., all award-winning sketch shows for HBO that allowed Ullman to let loose with her impersonations.

In State of the Union, she parodies American life with sketches no longer than a minute and a half each. She jumps around from location to location, Google map-style, delivering her take on American life.

"I like just doing character observations. It can be just a moment in time. It's not necessarily laugh-out-loud funny all the time. I've never done stand-up. I'm not a comedienne. I just love acting and submerging myself in characters."

The show, which she writes with satirist Bruce Wagner, lampoons politics, pop culture and everyday life. In three weeks of shooting, she became 52 characters. Among them: Dancing With the Stars' Len Goodman and actors Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill.

"That was hard for me. I was asking my teenage son how I should be, and he's thinking, 'Oh, God, my mom wants to be Jonah Hill. Why?' " she says, sliding in and out of character with each celebrity she ticks off. "I was a polygamist wife and had hair up to here. It was very interesting being a polygamist wife. I was very quiet and subservient. All the men on the crew quite liked me like that."

What excites Ullman the most isn't really that she's back on television. It's that other women are making their mark in television. She lights up talking about Tina Fey (who paid homage to Ullman in her acceptance speech at this year's Screen Actors Guild Awards) and Fey's success ("She knows my name!").

"Suddenly, you're the elder in the group," she says, laughing. "I have been doing this a long time, 25 years now. It's nice to feel that you're still relevant. People like Carol Burnett, Gilda Radner and Lily Tomlin were my role models.

Tracey Ullman recycles and drives a hybrid, but she has her eye on a plug-in vehicle next. The chameleon-like comic, whose series State of the Union returns to Showtime Apr. 12, is glad that auto companies are -- even if belatedly -- making electrics. “Isn’t it funny how under pressure that Chrysler can come out with the most brilliant electric car and they couldn’t for all those years?” she muses. “I really want that.”

Hey Tracey, are you sure it isn't a bodytrap hybrid that gets 900 miles to the Gallon?? :P

I am now wearing my awesome Tracey shirt at school. All my teachers love it! I modeled it for them, and some how I feel like Tracey..I don't know why, but one of my teachers said that I share something with Tracey, but she doesn't know what! So I have to get back to her on that one... Oh yeah, I'm so cool...I'm wearing a rare shirt and it's the only one in Canada! Booh-yah!

Today I have gotten the best gift ever! My Mom gave me a package this morning and told me to open it. She had a big smile on her face. I opened it, and it was a T-shirt. But not just any T-Shirt, it had Tracey on it! On the front, it has her logo "Tracey Ullman's State of the Union" and on the back is this HUGE picture of her, the same photo that is on the first season DVD of SOTU. This is the photo that is on my shirt:

I don't know how she got it, or where she got it from. It's not on Amazon or Ebay, so it must be very rare! aah...all I need is Tracey's Autograph on it..haha!

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts/Los Angeles will honor Tracey Ullman with its first-ever BAFTA/LA Charlie Chaplin Lifetime Achievement Award for Comedy. The award will be presented May 8 at the British Comedy Festival's awards ceremony at the Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills.

The festival and awards take place during Los Angeles' BritWeek 2009, which runs April 21-May 8.

"Our first British Comedy Festival last year was a major success, and we are very happy to continuously provide a platform for U.K. talent to an American audience in the realm of comedy," said BAFTA/LA chairman Peter Morris.

The BAFTA/LA Charlie Chaplin Award was designed by illustrator and graphic designer John Tribe.

Ullman's sketch series "State of the Union" begins its second season on HBO on Sunday.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Here is a scene from the first episode of "State of the Union" season two, which premieres this Sunday, on Showtime! This is where Tracey mentions my Favorite Actress, Meryl Streep, and how she looks good in spandex!

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Thanks to my friends Epmimic and Roger, I have found out that Tracey will be on the Early show this Friday, April 10, 2009! The show airs @ 7-9AM ET/PT. She will be promoting "State of the Union" which premieres, Sunday, April 12, 2009 @ 10PM ET/PT on SHOWTIME, after "The Tudors".

Friday, April 3, 2009

Okay..I just found out from my friend, Epmimic, that Tracey is going to be a guest Auctioneer for an event in LA this May...And again, I can't go! Tracey came to Toronto in 2006, when I didn't know about her...dammit...Only if I could go! But I live in Canada, and she's all the way in LA..

I've been feeling bummed lately, and really sad because I had to go to a Funeral today. I got home, loafed around, and decided to check youtube. I was searching for new vids on Trace, and came across this. And I swear, I laughed so much. No one makes me laugh harder...I love you Tracey, Your the best!

English native Tracey Ullman has a unique perspective on the United States — actually, she has dozens. In her zany sketch-comedy series, Tracey Ullman's State of the Union (Fridays at 10 pm/ET, Showtime), the multitalented mimic will each week deliver a series of rapid-fire vignettes that capture a day in the life of America. We caught up with her for some insight into the method behind her madness.

TVGuide.com: You sing, dance, act…. Is there anything you can't do?Tracey Ullman: I can't draw. Stick people come out! [Laughs] But, in general, I don't like to be pigeonholed. I'm lucky — I get to have a chance at anything. I'm a happy schizophrenic!

TVGuide.com: Explain the concept of State of the Union.Ullman: We spend a day in America — from dawn to dusk— dropping in on as many people as possible for no more than 90 seconds. I try to do a whole range of characters with the people. I want to do things very quickly and focus in on a thought or a joke very quickly, as opposed to setting it up with tons of other shots.

TVGuide.com: How did you develop your gift for mimicry?Ullman: I've done it since I was a child. Some children play piano or are good at soccer, but I could just imitate everybody in my class and everybody in my family. They'd put me up on the windowsill in my living room and make me do a show.

TVGuide.com: Do you have a favorite character from the series?Ullman: I like being Gretchen, the woman whose husband is on death row. Her little top with the chain-link strap just kills me. And I love being famous people. It felt daring and naughty to be real people like Arianna [Huffington], Laurie David and Rita Cosby.

TVGuide.com: Have you ever impersonated anyone to their face?Ullman: It's awful when people make you do it. They never get it. Whenever I meet Arianna, I do her, and she looks at me with such puzzlement. I say, "You sound like Eva Gabor in Green Acres." People don't hear themselves that way.

TVGuide.com: What is your impression of Americans?Ullman: It's hilarious. They're so excessive and there are so many extremes in this country because it's so vast. There's always something new happening. No matter how fed up the rest of the world is with us, we are still the fascination, the entertainment. Being from England, I think I have an observer's point of view. I think America's grown up and become more cynical. The political satire here is much more acute than when I first came. This program is a reflection of my [recent] American citizenship. I feel like I can say more.

TVGuide.com: Who are your greatest influences?Ullman: Peter Sellers. I'm not a stand-up comedian — I don't tell jokes. But I really like incredible character actors like Sellers, who would just get into characters and see the endearing, sad side of people. He wasn't just trying to do funny, on-the-surface impersonations, but also to get into a character. I also used to watch The Carol Burnett Show, and she's an extraordinary actress. She was always real. Even though that show is wacky and zany, she is just so true. People who can really become someone else I find very exciting.

TVGuide.com: Has there ever been an impression you couldn't master? Ullman: Sometimes. What's really tough is that Cajun New Orleans accent. It's such a mixture of things — a really bizarre French-Caribbean sort of thing. But there's nobody I wouldn't try.

I’ve been wanting to send Tracey a fan letter for ages now, but haven’t had any luck finding a decent Address…There are a couple, but don’t know if they are legitimate ones. Does anyone have a fan address where I can send her a letter? It would be much appreciated. HELP!

If I can't find one, I'm screwed...I might have to post it here in the hopes of Tracey reading it..lame or what?

What if Tracey is reading this right now? Hey Tracey! Okay...Lame.. I'll just end it here...

Okay.Let’s get the story straight shall we?There is a difference between being a fan, and being obsessed. I am NOT obsessed with Tracey. I am a fan. Sure, I do occasionally bring her up in conversations, but not constantly. Being obsessed is when you talk about her all the time, watch her on youtube everyday..etc..Oh shoot…I do that…well, sort of. Not every day. Dammit! I can’t make up my mind. I hate the word obsessed. It’s so negative you know? I mean, I like writing poems about her. Sure, it’s fun and all, but I have my limits. Every fan has their limits. I don’t know personal information on her. I don’t know where she lives, I don’t park outside her house, and I don’t know her email/phone number. That’s a good thing. Right? Fans talk about their favourite Actress/Actor to friends and family, because they inspire you. Just like how Tracey inspires me. I mean, She’s amazing. She’s a genius. Agreed?I love writing and blogging.I started this blog because there wasn’t really any blogs besides www.traceyullman.tk and I thought “why not”. Now I can share my feelings about her, and share them with other fans like me. I have defended her in the past, or tried to. That doesn’t make me obsessed. I know plenty of people who have defended my other favourite Actress, Meryl Streep. That doesn’t make them obsessed. Or does it?I’m confusing myself here. All I can say is that I’m not obsessed. I’m a fan, and I admire her. Say what you will. Call me Obsessed. I know I'm not...well, maybe, just a little...